Frontier Communications closed up 18 percent at $2.96 Wednesday after Q4 results above some estimates. Windstream, which filed for bankruptcy Monday (see 1902250058), has fallen this week, closing Wednesday down 20 percent at 38 cents. Frontier sales were little changed from the year-ago quarter at $2.12 billion, which JPMorgan Chase's Philip Cusick emailed investors was above his forecast. The total included "subsidy and other regulatory revenue" of $94 million. Cusick and another analyst noted the quarterly loss of some 67,000 broadband subscribers missed estimates. "If there was a weakness in the quarter," it was "broadband gross additions," CEO Dan McCarthy responded to an analyst question on a call Tuesday. "Consumer customer churn of 1.94%, improved sequentially and vs. Q4 2017," the telco said. Executives expect to further reduce the portion of consumers who cancel service, focusing on broadband. "You should expect to see further progress" here, McCarthy told analysts. "We have more opportunity to improve churn." This year, "we will continue to build in [Connect America Fund] markets and continue building fiber to the home high-speed internet in some non-CAF rural areas through state funding sources," said interim Chief Financial Officer Sheldon Bruha. McCarthy later said "we hit our goal" for CAF in Q4 and "the challenge is now finding unique ways to market to that." He hopes to add such subscribers. In one state, the company had apparently slightly missed a target, he said. "It had to do with some permitting on some power to some remote locations." Frontier didn't comment further. The carrier may sell more assets, after Everest Infrastructure Partners in January bought nearly 100 of the telco's wireless towers in 17 states. "We are combing the entire country looking at different opportunities to monetize something that’s not core," McCarthy responded to another question. Real estate holdings are the "most likely candidates," he added. "My expectation is you would see some additional sales, maybe not in the near term, but as we go through the next year or so."

DOJ won't further challenge in court its two-time judicial loss in its failed effort to block AT&T from having bought Time Warner, it said Tuesday. Earlier that day, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously sided with AT&T in upholding a lower court judgment that approved the deal worth tens of billions of dollars.

Windstream Holdings and all its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, the telco announced, amid a dispute with a hedge fund over a bond issue. "The Company intends to use the court-supervised process to address debt maturities that have been accelerated as a result of the recent decision by Judge Jesse Furman in the Southern District of New York against Windstream Services," it said Monday.

Amid the FTC's "huge portfolio that’s much different" from his agency's, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said, are "a bunch of things that are unrelated. It makes it a very challenging opportunity for them." He was answering a question about the two agencies' coordination on net neutrality, during an episode of C-SPAN's The Communicators to be online Friday and televised this weekend. He repeated that net neutrality is a federal, not state, issue and raised national security concerns about Chinese 5G gear.

The now-open FCC delayed deadlines until Feb 8 for all filings that would have been due Jan. 8-Feb. 7. Also, filings that were due from Jan. 2 (the start of the agency's closure) through Jan. 7 remain due Wednesday, said a Tuesday afternoon public notice. It supersedes the commission's earlier guidance.

The Newseum building is being sold for $372.5 million to Johns Hopkins University, after a year-plus review of the media museum's "unsustainable operating costs," said its creator, Freedom Forum. The forum has committed more than $600 million for the museum, and said the property will remain open to the public through the year. Newseum Chair Peter Prichard said it's "ready to continue much of the Newseum’s important work for decades to come -- through digital outreach, traveling exhibits, and web-based programs in schools around the world, as well as hopefully in a new physical home in the area." Finding a new space is the museum's preference, said a spokesperson. Johns Hopkins "will use the building as a new consolidated center for its DC-based graduate programs," the Freedom Forum said Friday. The museum declined further comment. For the new owner, "transforming" 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW "will require a significant renovation, as well as a number of required reviews and approvals by regulatory agencies," the university said. "Construction could begin as soon as the fall of 2020 and will take about two and half years." JHU plans to keep operating the property's restaurant and residences "as commercial entities" in their current form, and it's buying the entire property, a university spokesperson emailed us. "The intention is to consolidate our DC presence there. We expect to eventually sell our current DC properties."

As the FCC closure dragged on Friday, the agency reversed course by reopening the equipment authorization system (see 1901180040). That EAS resumption potentially lets some new RF equipment get approval, though particularly complex gear might still need to wait. The Jan. 2 public notice on what the commission was shutting and leaving open during the partial government shutdown said the EAS wouldn't be available, the FCC noted Friday. All other parts of that earlier PN remain effective.

As the FCC's closure drags on, the agency has reversed course and is reopening its equipment authorization system. That potentially allows some new RF equipment to gain approval. A Jan. 2 public notice on the lapse in funding said the EAS wouldn't be available, the FCC noted Friday.

That the FCC lacks funding wasn't sufficient cause for the court overseeing challenges to the agency's rollback of common-carrier net neutrality rules to delay oral argument. "These cases remained scheduled for oral argument on February 1, 2019," said a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit order filed Thursday.

Due to the ongoing FCC closure during the partial government shutdown, the agency Tuesday requested that the court hearing appeals to its common-carrier net neutrality rollback delay Feb. 1's oral argument. The agency's request noted petitioners oppose the motion. The case is Mozilla v. FCC, No. 18-1051.